Brief History of Newton’s Law of Motion

“If I have seen a little further,

it is by standing on the
shoulders of Giants.”
-Isaac Newton
 First Law of Motion
• Law of Inertia:
“An object at rest will stay at rest, as long as
nothing pushes or pulls on it. An object in
motion will stay in motion, traveling in a straight
line, until something pushes or pulls on it.”

• Inertia - tendency of an object to resist a

change in its motion

• Zero net force means no force at all

 First Law of Motion
• Do you ever wonder why seatbelt exists in cars?
Imagine for a moment that a car at a test track is traveling at a speed of 55 mph.
Now imagine that a crash test dummy is inside that car, riding in the front seat. If
the car slams into a wall, the dummy flies forward into the dashboard. Why?

• Seatbelts hold passengers down, protecting them from their own inertia.
 First Law of Motion

Q: In the classic 1950 science fiction film Rocketship X-M, a space- ship is
moving in the vacuum of outer space, far from any star or planet, when its
engine dies. As a result, the spaceship slows down and stops. What does
Newton’s first law say about this scene?

A: After the engine dies there are no forces acting on the spaceship, so
according to Newton’s first law it will not stop but will continue to move in a
straight line with constant speed. Some science fiction movies are based on
accurate science; this is not one of them.
 First Law of Motion

Q: You are driving a Maserati GranTurismo S on a straight testing track at a

constant speed of . You pass a 1971 Volkswagen Beetle doing a constant .
On which car is the net force greater?

A: The key word in this question is “net.” Both cars are in equilibrium
because their velocities are constant; Newton’s first law therefore says that
the net force on each car is zero.
 First Law of Motion

Which person in this ring will be harder to move? The sumo wrestler or the little boy?
 Second Law of Motion
• Law of Acceleration:
“If a net external force acts on a body, the body accelerates. The direction
of acceleration is the same as the direction of the net force. The mass of
the body times the acceleration of the body equals the net force vector.”
• Force and acceleration are directly proportional, while mass and
acceleration are inversely proportional.
• Force is the differential change in momentum per unit time

F = (m)(Δv/Δt) or

or
 Second Law of Motion

• Four aspects of Newton’s second law that deserve special attention:

1. The first equation is a vector equation

2. Newton’s second law refers to external forces

3. The two equations are valid only when the mass m is constant

4. Newton’s second law is valid only in inertial frames of reference

 Second Law of Motion

If you want to calculate the acceleration, first you need to modify the force equation to
get a = F/m. When you plug in the numbers for force (100 N) and mass (50 kg), you find
that the acceleration is 2 m/s2.
 Second Law of Motion

The mass of the sled stays at 50 kg and that another dog is added to the team. If we
assume the second dog pulls with the same force as the first (100 N), the total force
would be 200 N and the acceleration would be 4 m/s2.
 Second Law of Motion

1. A worker applies a constant

horizontal force with magnitude 20
N to a box with mass 40 kg resting
on a level floor with negligible
friction. What is the acceleration of
the box?
 Second Law of Motion
2. A waitress shoves a ketchup bottle with mass 0.45 kg to her right along a
smooth, level lunch counter. The bottle leaves her hand moving at then
slows down as it slides because of a constant horizontal friction force
exerted on it by the countertop. It slides for 1.0 m before coming to rest.
What are the magnitude and direction of the friction force acting on the
bottle?
 Third Law of Motion
• Law of Action-Reaction:
“If body A exerts a force on body B (an “action”), then body B exerts a
force on body A (a “reaction”). These two forces have the same
magnitude but are opposite in direction. These two forces act on
different bodies.”

• Action-reaction pairs never act on the same body, they act on different
bodies
 Third Law of Motion

The swimmer is applying a force to the wall, but her motion indicates
that a force is being applied to her, too. This force comes from the wall,
and it's equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.
 Third Law of Motion

What are the action-reaction pair you can see in this picture?
 Third Law of Motion
Q: After your sports car breaks down, you start to push it to the nearest
repair shop. While the car is starting to move, how does the force you exert
on the car compare to the force the car exerts on you? How do these forces
compare when you are pushing the car along at a constant speed?

A: Newton’s third law says that in both cases, the force you exert on the car
is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction to the force the car exerts on
you. It’s true that you have to push harder to get the car going than to keep
it going. But no matter how hard you push on the car, the car pushes just as
hard back on you. Newton’s third law gives the same result whether the two
bodies are at rest, moving with constant velocity, or accelerating.